MEUSIS in Italy (SIAS Project)

Description of the SIAS (Sviluppo di Indicatori Ambientali sul Suolo in Italia - Development of Soil Indicators in Italy) Project

The European Commission, Joint Research Centre has initiated a close collaboration with APAT (L'Agenzia per la protezione dell'ambiente e per i servizi tecnici) in ITALY in order to develop the Italian Soil Database according to INSPIRE principles following the Pixel methodology and using the data from the italian Regions.

Data: Reference Grids

1km x 1km Italian Regional Reference Grids: The idea of using grids as a tool for the exchange of soil data and for the creation of a large map out of many small ones is also applied in the SIAS (Sviluppo di Indicatori Ambientali sul Suolo in Italia - Development of Soil Indicators in Italy) project. This project aims at collecting soil data from soil data providers at regional level in Italy in order to assemble Italian maps. Therefore, for each Italian region a 1km x 1km grid has been prepared. The cells in a grid are allocated to the region. Each region should provide only data for its cells.

Working Programme

1. Methodological proposal, elaborated from ARPAV, in collaboration with the other regions participants, APAT and JRC;

2. Application experiences them in some areas of the regions participants and first adaptation of the methodology

3. Final adaptation of the methodology, on the base of the observations and the contributions reached from the regional experts.

4. Regional elaborations with the support of the coordination;

5. Assemblage and completion edited by ARPAV and APAT;

6. Delivery.

Latest News

January 2008: Project Partners test the Exchange Format, Deadline for comments is 31/1/2008.

December 2007: APAT has sent to all Project Partners the "Exchange Format" version 8.0 (Definitive one) and the Database Schema (Access Format)

December 2007: APAT, ARPAV, PER have distributed to the Project Partners the Document "Methods for the Estimation of Soil Erosion"

Contact points

Project Responsible: Fiorenzo Fumanti (APAT) and Panos Panagos (JRC) for more details regarding the project.An E-mailing list has been established for the communication of the project. If you want to be part of this mailing list, please send an E-mail to the Technical Co-ordiantor: Panos Panagos